Well, l hope that you are all enjoying your holidays. We like to go out for a walk with the children whenever the winter weather allows during the holidays. There are so many lovely places to walk around Rocky Bay.

As you already know, there is a farm at the back of Rocky Bay that belongs to Farmer Jenkins.

Farmer Jenkins rents out one of his fields to people to keep their horses on. These people want to own a horse but don’t have enough land themselves. So they pay him for the use of his land.

There is also a stable by the side of the field that the horses can stay in when it gets really cold.

The horses who live there are very lucky to live in such beautiful countryside. Not all horses live in the country.

Some live in the town and have to go to work every day. They do things like pull delivery wagons. There are also horses that work for the police and the army.

Years ago many delivery wagons were pulled by horses. Things like milk and coal were regularly delivered to people’s houses by them. Nowadays, you are lucky to see one. Harrods, a famous shop in London, still uses them.

Some of these working horses go on holiday every summer. lt is important for their health that they have a holiday and also because they have been working so hard they deserve a treat!

They are taken to a holiday home for horses in the countryside and usually stay there for about two weeks.

Even though they can be very big and heavy horses, when they are released into a field they start frolicking about like little foals. They are so happy to be there.

And the Queen’s horses go on holiday as well. They go off for six weeks to Windsor Great Park.

Sometimes they don’t want to go back to their work in London at the end of their holiday. The Queen’s soldiers have to chase after them if they become naughty and run away!

Then at the end of their working lives all these horses are either adopted by people or go to a retirement home for horses. There are homes like this all over the country. Sometimes these retirement homes also take in donkeys. Horses and donkeys usually get on well together.

Some horses like the famous race horses Red Rum and Desert Orchid even publish their autobiographies (the story of their life). Although to be fair, l think they do get help writing the manuscript (from humans); l think their hooves would be too big to use a keyboard!

Their halters are padded to protect the horses’ shoulders as they pull the weight

Police horses wear visors if they are working in a crowd and they want to protect their eyes – and they also often wear reflective strips on their legs which will show up when they are walking on the road in low light

Army horses

A baby horse is called a foal

Horses are herd animals and like to have friends around them

Horse yoga is getting very popular

This one is practising on his own

A donkey

Horses are very often an important part of ceremonies

This is the Lord Mayor of London’s gold coach

The front wheels of the coach

THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK

Emily’s has a beautiful horse for her 12” doll, and Auntie Alice said that if anyone goes out riding a horse or bicycle, especially on the roads, they should always wear high visibility clothing. So she has made a jacket for Emily’s doll to wear.

It fits neatly over the T shaped jumper from last week’s blog post.

The pattern uses moss stitch which means that the armholes will not curl up like they would if you used stocking stitch. But if you think this is too difficult for you, garter stitch would work too.

Cut 4 lengths of narrow orange ribbon 12cm/4½ inches long and attach to the front edges of the gilet to create ties.

And finally…

If you take your Christmas cards to participating Marks and Spencer stores to be recycled before the 31st January they will help the Woodland Trust to plant trees. One tree will be planted for every 1,000 cards donated.

This scheme has been running for 19 years and in that time 245,000 trees have been planted!

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PLEASE CONTACT:

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Quick Quiz

Are you a horse fanatic? Test your horse knowledge with this quick quiz.

How long have people been domesticating (taming) horses?

What is the difference between a colt and a filly?

How long do horses live?

How many breeds of horses are there?

How is a horse measured?

What is the word we use for brushing a horse?

What colour is a palomino?

What is the name of the person who puts shoes on horses?

What is the difference between a pony and a horse?

What is the difference between a forelock and a fetlock?

What do the phrases ‘from the horse’s mouth’ and ‘don’t look a gift horse in the mouth’ and ‘you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink’ mean?

What does the phrase ‘to be given a free rein’ mean?

What do we call the four walking movements of a horse?

Shoeing a horse has to be done more often when a horse frequently walks on road surfaces because the shoes wear down more quickly.

BLOW MY FOGHORN!!!

PLUS

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lt’s the Weekend!

HOW TO MAKE A BLANKET FOR YOUR TOY HORSE

It is difficult to give measurements for this project because of course there are so many different sizes of toy horse.

The first thing to do is measure your own horse.

The length of the blanket will be the measurement from the top of the withers to the top of the tail.

The width will be from the top of the withers to the top of the knee x 2 (both sides of the horse).

Cut your piece of fabric (a very thin fleece or felt will do – don’t use fabric that frays easily).

Fold it onto quarters and pin it together.

Put the lid of a jar onto the corner where there are no folds only corners.

Draw around the lid and cut along this line with the fabric still pinned together to create curved corners for your blanket.

Measure around the edge of your blanket to know how much bias binding you will need to use – if you need to buy some, and buy a little more than the length of the edge of the blanket – if you are using some from out of a packet don’t cut it until you have finished sewing it onto the blanket.

Edge the blanket with bias binding – sew it to the top side of the blanket and then go round again sewing the under side making sure that your stitches don’t show through to the top side – use catch stitch and make sure your stitches are small and neat – ease it onto the blanket neatly when going around the curves.

Then whether your horse’s name is Nero, Nebula or Neddy you can embroider your horse’s initial into the corner of the blanket – you can use tiny chain stitch or a couching technique which means sewing a length of thicker thread or yarn which is laid onto the surface of the fabric on with thinner sewing thread.

You need to then cut four lengths of ribbon and sew them to the front and sides of the blanket – make sure you have enough ribbon to tie a bow at the front of your horse and under your horse – pin the ends in place and try the blanket on you horse to make sure the ribbons are in the right place before you sew them on.

Horses usually wear their coats on a very cold day of after they have been exercising – if you own a very fashion-conscious horse, they might want more than one coat.

(The front of the blanket to go over the horse’s withers is at the top of the photograph and the back of the blanket to go over the horse’s tail is at the bottom of the photograph.)

A saddle with stirrup

A blacksmith or farrier uses the point of an anvil to shape horse shoes

A blacksmith’s workshop – the furnace is used to heat up the metal to a high temperature and the anvil is used to shape the shoes to fit each foot

TlPS FOR TALKlNG TO HORSES

If you ever give a horse a sugar lump, apple, carrot or minty sweet, make sure your hand is really flat so that it can’t chew your fingers.

Never come up from behind a horse because you might make it jump; you will find out that they are very heavy if they stand on your foot!

Don’t touch a horse’s rump because some of them are ticklish there and they might kick you.

What horses like most is their noses stroked gently, or you can stroke their necks.

Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in the classrooms only.

It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.

About 6,000 years – The invention of the bridle and horse’s bit (this is the metal bar that sits in a horse’s mouth and effectively controls them when you ride) is one of the most important inventions in human history.

A colt is a male horse under four years old and a filly is a female horse under four years old. (This is five years in horse racing.)

About 25-30 years (some horses have been known to live to nearly double this age)

Over 300

ln ‘hands’ which is a measurement of ‘4 inches’ – the horses height is measured from the top of the withers to the ground

Grooming

Light brown with a paler coloured mane

A farrier

A pony is up to and including 14.2 hand high and a horse is 14.3 and above

They are at opposite ends of the horse (see the diagram)

1. You can tell the age of a young horse by looking at their teeth (they change every year). Anyone selling you a horse cannot lie about the age of the horse because you only have to look in the horse’s mouth to know the truth. So to say ‘straight from the horse’s mouth’ means getting information from someone who knows what they are talking about. 2. lf someone is giving you a gift, because it is free, there is no need to analyse its value or condition. So you don’t need to ‘look a gift (free) horse in the mouth’. 3. ‘You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink’ means that you can only help people so much before they have to make a decision to do something for themselves.

This phrase means that you have been given the authority to make your own decisions about a project. When you give a horse a ‘free rein’ you do not have it under tight control.

Walking, trotting, cantering and galloping (lt is like having four gears )

A palomino

Horses have been an important part of our lives ever since the bit was invented

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